Ragen Chastain

Ragen Chastain

Bio

Ragen Chastain is a professional speaker, writer, and real live fat person.  She has spoken everywhere from friend's living rooms to Google Headquarters to Cal Tech and Dartmouth.  She will not stop until we live in a world where the full diversity of body sizes is respected, and fat people are able to live in fat bodies without shame, stigma, bullying, and harrasment, regardless of why they are fat, what being fat means, and if they could (or even want to) become thin. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner Julianne and their adorable rescue dogs, and is training for her first (and hopefully only!) IRONMAN triathlon. If you can't get enough of her on Ravishly, you can check out her blog www.danceswithfat.org

Ragen Chastain Articles

Aidy Bryant  by Behind The Velvet Rope TV

Aidy Bryant Puts Fat Shaming In Its Place 

Aidy Bryant’s recent interview with The Cut is so refreshing! Aidy is crystal clear that the problem isn’t fat bodies, but rather fatphobia.

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United Airlines, Leggings, And Deciding What Matters

Companies make unjust policies all the time, and they rarely change them except by public pressure.

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This is the time to fight, to hold the line, to preserve our humanity and protect our bodies — all of our bodies. (Image: Flickr/ mumography)

Having A Body In Donald’s America 

It’s a dangerous and challenging time for many of us to have a body in the United States. There are things we can do to not only love our bodies but give them our support during the era of the bigoted, fat shaming, twitter tantrum throwing man-baby who is, for now, our president.

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I don't care what Donald Trump eats.

I Don't Care What Donald Trump Eats, And Neither Should You

I don’t care what Donald Trump eats, or any other president for that matter. I don’t care if he exercises. Health is not guaranteed under any circumstance.

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(Image Credit: Thinkstock)

The War On Obesity – Dead Or Alive

In the face of funding shortages, Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has decided that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above, as well as smokers, will be barred from most surgery for up to a year. But don’t fool yourself, this isn’t about health, or healthy behaviors – this is about money, and it’s about the people in charge deciding whose blatant oppression the general citizenry will tolerate. Years of campaigns suggesting that it’s fine for people to stereotype fat people and blame us for their problems have led to a situation where people are comfortable with us being denied the same medical care that they receive. And that should horrify you.

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Google! A walk is not a cupcake!

A Walk Is Not A Cupcake: Google's Worst Idea Yet

Hey Google - encouraging people to walk, while ignoring there are plenty of people with disabilities, is engaging in ableism. Cupcakes only make it worse!

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Not only does she suggest that “feeling fat” can be fixed through the use of tools, but she says that one “tool” to use when you’re “feeling fat” is to tell yourself that you are “beautiful.” Dude. (Image Credit: Instagram/theashleygraham)

Dear Ashley Graham: Fat Is Not A Feeling

Fat is not a feeling you have. Fat is a body size you are. Fat people have as many different feelings about our bodies as thin people do. Suggesting that feeling bad about your body means that you are “feeling fat” is fat shaming AF, and it adds to the ceaseless fatphobic messages that permeate our society.

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"While there are tons of fathletes, fat people are often excluded from the fitness world — especially when it comes to working in the fitness industry." Image: flickr.com

Gold's Gym Posts Stunningly Misogynistic Ad; Activists Shut It Down

Using the corporate logo, a Gold's Gym franchise in Egypt posted a picture of a pear with the caption "This is no shape for a girl" to their Facebook page. There was an immediate backlash, which led to a bizarre non-apology apology that looks like it was written by Donald Trump's full time "Apologizing for Stunningly Offensive Stuff" Team.

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Even if moving to business models that include clothes for people of all sizes might take a while, the issues with models could be solved immediately. (Image Credit: Instagram/forever21)

Forever 21 & The 'All Shapes And Sizes' Lie

So this new line by Forever 21 goes up to “3X” which they’ve defined as a size 18. Forever 21 may be better than some in terms of carrying larger sizes, and they may want to “celebrate fashion for all sizes,” but let’s be clear that they aren’t even close to creating fashion for all sizes.

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Instead of heading down a resolutions shame spiral that lasts until next year, let’s regroup and do this in a way that makes sense.

February And Your Resolutions Are Already History? What To Do Now.

Welcome to the resolutions flame out. It’s not so much that your resolutions crashed and burned, it’s more like they just never got off the ground in the first place. But there is hope. We can right this ride.

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